telecine - state of

Ralph Tabith · May 15, 2008

A friend of mine had some telecine done at Soho images in London recently and I was rather unimpressed. Do these companies fob struggling filmmakers off with lesser results?/ I had some stuff telecined (is that TK'd for short?) over in india and the quality was stupendous compared to the london footage.

it doesnt really make sense?/ i might ship my telecine stuff (and his) over stateside or back to india from now on as the service seems a; alot cheaper and b; higher quality.

Ian Cooper · May 16, 2008

What service did Soho Images provide: One Light/Best Light/Supervised.

What instructions (if any) did your friend give regarding "look"?

Those details may explain why the footage didn't look how you may have expected. In what way were you unimpressed. Were the images soft, grainy, colour balance off, contrast too flat/too high??

Likewise with the Indian lab?

Personally I've only used Todd-AO, but been happy with their service, and content with their price.

Ralph Tabith · May 16, 2008

What service did Soho Images provide: One Light/Best Light/Supervised.
What instructions (if any) did your friend give regarding "look"?

Those details may explain why the footage didn't look how you may have expected. In what way were you unimpressed. Were the images soft, grainy, colour balance off, contrast too flat/too high??

Likewise with the Indian lab?

Personally I've only used Todd-AO, but been happy with their service, and content with their price.

Maybe it was a combination of the lighting and what not but the image appeared to me quite grainy and flat. He was using 500 t so that probably explains that, I dont know - the picture just appeared quite flat like a high end VHS tape if there is such a thing. The colours werent saturated and the contrast was strange in places, but there was an overall feel that it wasnt a top draw tk

it was a one light transfer, we/he couldnt really afford a supervised. :( i am telling him to shoot 7201 next time, in lovely sunlight.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Ralph Tabith

Adrian Sierkowski · May 16, 2008

That sounds like a one light transfer to me.

They're not correcting every shot, so in some things may look "Wierd," also film overall isn't very punchy, I would say, with it's colors, but very soft and subtle, with a lot of information; low contrast, ya know? Later on in your own color timing is when you'd punch up the saturation/crush blacks/blow whites/ etc. . .to get the slicker looks oft associated with film these days.

Of course, this is all speculation on how I'm picturing what you're describing. Got any framegrabs of it?

Ralph Tabith · May 16, 2008

That sounds like a one light transfer to me.
They're not correcting every shot, so in some things may look "Wierd," also film overall isn't very punchy, I would say, with it's colors, but very soft and subtle, with a lot of information; low contrast, ya know? Later on in your own color timing is when you'd punch up the saturation/crush blacks/blow whites/ etc. . .to get the slicker looks oft associated with film these days.

Of course, this is all speculation on how I'm picturing what you're describing. Got any framegrabs of it?

What i will do is get some and some india stills and compare........=

Stuart Brereton · May 16, 2008

One lights are often done on older machines, like the Ursa Gold, which I always find to be unacceptably noisy. It's worth paying extra for a Spirit transfer.

You can find a comparison of Ursa TK with Spirit on my website.

Click Here.